Always careful to buy natural and organic products, John and Janelle Livingston are able to take it a step further by buying hormone-free, grass-fed meat straight from a local farm.

For 10 years, Janelle Livingston gave up red meat, until pregnancy cravings kicked in two years ago.

Since then, the 35-year-old mother and her family regularly chow down on steaks, hamburgers, bacon, ham and sausage at their Bend home, eating meat at least once a day.

”I had not eaten meat in so long,” she said. ”The sausage is fabulous.”

But Livingston wouldn’t be eating beef and pork with such gusto, or frequency, if she and her husband John, 32, weren’t able to buy hormone-free, grass-fed meat straight off a farm in Alfalfa.

Short of raising the animal themselves, getting their meat from a local farm puts the Livingstons as in touch with their food as they can possibly be.

Instead of buying a faceless piece of meat at the grocery store, the Livingstons and their 20-month-old daughter, Ella, often trek to Fresh Start Farms to buy fresh eggs, talk with the owners, Kathi and Tom Miller, and see the animals that will one day end up on their dinner table.

”We don’t name the cows, but I like that we’re teaching Ella that food comes from somewhere, not just on a plate,” John Livingston said.

Families like the Livingstons may have an easier time buying naturally raised meat from local producers. Farms such as Fresh Start, Dancing Cow and Pilot Butte Hereford Ranch in Prineville are taking advantage of a growing consumer interest in homegrown products by dedicating a portion of their herds to market and sell as meat to locals.

Each of the farmers also offers other products, like fresh eggs and vegetables.

In the past year, the Livingstons have bought a quarter of a cow, half of a pig and a dozen chickens from Fresh Start Farms. When the animal is ready to be slaughtered and processed, they can custom order the cuts they want, down to the thickness of their steaks. They get enough meat to fill their freezer and feed them for months.

Selling meat directly to the consumer is nothing new in Central Oregon, said Tim Deboodt, an agent with Oregon State University Extension services.

Traditionally, many local farms have sold a whole, half or a quarter of an animal through newspaper ads or by word of mouth to family, friends or local residents, he said. Typically, farms sell meat when they have animals to spare, he said.

But as people continue to seek out farm-direct products, more small farmers could tap into the niche.

”Folks like knowing where their food comes from and how it was raised and handled,” Deboodt said. ”It’s nice to see Central Oregon supporting Central Oregon agriculture.”

Sustainable meat

”Sirloin,” one of the 16 black cattle on Jerre Kosta and Sean Dodson’s 10-acre farm, laid on the ground recently, panting under the warm sun as chickens pecked at the ground in a nearby pen.

A yearling, Sirloin will be ready for slaughter next year.

Kosta and Dodson give Irish names to the heifers they keep at Dancing Cow in Prineville. But the ones that will one day become someone’s meal are called T-Bone, Porter, Rib eye and, of course, Sirloin.

”So no one forgets to honor them,” Kosta said. ”That’s their job.”

Though they have traditionally sold meat to family and friends, Kosta and Dodson hope to branch out this year.

Like Kosta and Dodson, Jere Breese, who runs his family’s 6,000-acre Pilot Butte Hereford Ranch with his dad, plans to ramp up efforts to sell his meat through the local farmer’s market and by word of mouth. He also raises cattle for the commercial market.

Miller, who owns Fresh Start, has sold meat directly to consumers for years, and typically has about 20 customers a year.

Each one of the farmers feeds their animals grass and hay. None of them gives their animals hormones or antibiotics. And they all try to maintain a closed herd by not adding or limiting the number of new animals.

At Dancing Cow, Kosta and Dodson also try to adhere to sustainable farming practices. They recycle, have a compost pile for their waste and use the manure from their animals as a natural fertilizer for the grass that the cattle eat.

Miller tries to make sure that her animals live like animals on her 40-acre farm in Alfalfa, letting them roam freely on the pastures with as much elbow room as possible.

The end product is naturally raised meat that you can feel good about putting in your mouth, according to the farmers.

”People are going to want to get locally produced food, and we want to be able to do that,” Breese said. ”If people can see where it comes from, they will feel better about what they are eating.”

At each place, customers can visit the farm, see the operations, talk to the farmers and ask questions.

”The important thing is you get a better understanding of what you are buying,” Dodson said.

Miller gets regular visits from customers like the Livingstons.

”They want to see what you are doing. They want to poke around. I don’t care,” Miller said. ”If you’ve got questions, you can ask them.”

Just as important to the farmers, when residents buy locally, they support small farms and family farms, as well as sustainable farming.

”Part of this is an experiment to see what could work,” Kosta said. ”We want to find a way that the small farm can survive.”

”A piece of it is about what you are eating,” Miller said. ”But you’re also not supporting an incredible waste of fossil fuel to get one piece of lettuce across the county.”

Selling meat directly to the consumers likely won’t reap big profits for farms like Dancing Cow and Fresh Start. It’s also unclear how big of an industry it is. Neither the Oregon Beef Council nor the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association tracks small farms who sell meat directly to consumers.

Farmers like Miller, Kosta and Dodson are happy to break even or make enough to reinvest into their operations.

”You don’t make money,” Miller said. ”This is more about the lifestyle.”

Personal preference

Knowing farmers like Miller try to tread lightly on the Earth appeals to the Livingstons.

They have always been careful to buy organic vegetables, free-range chicken and naturally raised meat at the grocery store.

But through Miller, they are able to take their conscientious consumerism one step further.

Buying from a farm takes more initiative than picking up a package of meat from the grocery store. But bypassing the commercial feedlots gives the Livingstons peace of mind.

”It’s healthy and local,” John Livingston said. ”It doesn’t take as much energy to produce it.”

The local farmers also tout the taste and health of their grass-fed, naturally raised meat. They tend to slaughter their cattle about three to six months later than commercial operations. And some age their meat longer after it’s slaughtered to enhance the flavor.

Kosta and Dodson said grass-fed beef is leaner and has a stronger taste.

”There is more umph there,” Kosta said.

But the difference between buying meat from the farmer and meat at the grocery store often comes down to personal preference.

Most commercially raised cattle are primarily fed corn and potato waste, but are sometimes supplemented with hay or grass, said Tom Green, who owns a feedlot in Madras where cattle for the commercial market are sent to fatten up.

If cattle feed longer on grain, the beef turns out to be the more tender and marbled cuts that are often prized by meat eaters, Green said.

Buying meat from a local farmer can also be more expensive than store-bought meat. In addition to the price of the meat, customers often have to pay the slaughtering and cut and wrap fees for the meat. They may have to pick up the meat from the butcher themselves.

These added costs can drive the price up, depending on the cut. For instance, the Livingstons paid about $3.65 a pound for their last round of meat.

But, they pointed out, they ended up paying the same price for sirloin as they did for hamburger, and they got to choose which cuts they wanted.

Breese said being locally produced adds value that offsets the higher prices.

”Consumers can say it’s worth it to me to pay a little more to know where their animal comes from,” Breese said.

‘Not for everybody’

One day when Kosta and her family were eating steak, her 5-year-old granddaughter asked suddenly, ”Is this T-Bone?”

The family braced themselves for the talk, knowing that they had to explain that the bull she once knew as T-Bone was the steak she was now eating.

Putting a face on your food is not for everyone. But for people who question what they eat or where it comes from, buying direct from the farmer is a good fit, Kosta said.

In her newsletter, Miller warns her customers that the farm is not ”coffee table, picture book perfect.”

At her farm – with its 360-degree views of the Cascades, Powell Buttes and the Maury Mountains – people see nature in all of its phases.

Miller recently watched over a mother cow that had just given birth that day. As the calf stood on wobbly legs, its mother licked the calf clean and slurped up the afterbirth from labor to keep coyotes away.

It’s important to connect with your food, she said.

”It’s a good thing. It’s not for everybody,” Miller said. ”But it’s a good thing.”

Tips for buying meat from a farm

* Buy from a local farm that you can visit.

* Get to know the farmers and learn about their practices.

* Try to taste the meat first before you commit to buying the animal.

* Split an animal with friends or family to get the best variety of cuts.

* Visit the facility where the animal will be slaughtered to see the state of the operation.

* Understand the difference between the live weight, hanging weight and the cut weight of an animal. For example, a steer that weighs 1,200 pounds in the field could lose about 40 percent of its mass at its hanging weight, or the weight of the carcass, and end up about 720 pounds. The cut weight is the weight of the meat after it is cut, trimmed and portioned to a customer’s request. Starting with a 1,200-pound steer, you could end up with about 460 pounds of meat. But the amount of meat you get depends on how fatty or lean the meat is, and the kinds of cuts you request.

* Ask about the timeline for getting your meat. Depending on which local farm you use, it can take several months.

* In addition to the price of the meat, customers often have to pay the slaughtering and cut and wrap fees for the meat. They may also have to pick up the meat from the butcher or farm.

* Be prepared to pay a down payment or all at once.

Contact information

* To reach Breese’s farm, visit the Web site at www.breesebeef.com.

* To reach Dancing Cow Farm, call 416-9019.

* To reach Fresh Start Farms, call 317-5925.